Sterling Bank of Asia

What Sterling Bank of Asia does

Sterling Bank of Asia Inc. is a privately held Philippine thrift bank headquartered at the Sterling Bank Corporate Center on Ortigas Avenue, Greenhills, San Juan City. The bank is regulated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and its deposits are insured by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) up to PHP 1,000,000 per depositor. It serves four primary customer segments — retail individuals, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) including seafarers, and corporate/commercial clients — through a multi-channel distribution model that combines a physical branch network across multiple Philippine cities with ATMs (extended via BancNet membership), online banking portals for personal and corporate customers, iOS and Android mobile apps, QR Pay, and InstaPay/PESONet electronic fund transfer rails.

The bank's core product portfolio spans deposit products in PHP, USD, and CNY (savings, checking, and short- and long-term time deposits); consumer loans including home, auto, personal, salary, seafarer, and the new EcoSolutions green loan; ShopnPay Visa debit and prepaid cards; and a comprehensive SME business solutions suite under the Optima brand (payroll, payroll crediting, financial management, check writing and warehousing, point-of-sale, cash deposit machine, and eGOV electronic government payments). It also offers personal trust, corporate trust, unit investment trust funds (UITF), investment management, and treasury/foreign exchange services.

Revenue is generated primarily through interest income on its loan portfolio, transaction and service fees from the Optima business solutions and card services, and fees from trust, UITF, and treasury services. Go-to-market is sales-led and direct-to-consumer via branches and digital channels, with marketing emphasis on financial literacy, security awareness (in alignment with BSP consumer protection guidance), and product information content. The bank is an independent entity with no disclosed parent company, subsidiaries, funding rounds, M&A activity, or public ticker, and it has not disclosed revenue, headcount, or ownership details in the source materials reviewed.

Name

Sterling Bank of Asia

Legal name

Sterling Bank of Asia Inc.

Website

https://sterlingbankasia.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1,001–5,000 employees

Short description

Sterling Bank of Asia is a privately held Philippine thrift bank regulated by BSP that provides retail deposits, consumer and SME loans, business solutions (Optima), Visa cards, and trust/UITF services to individuals, SMEs, OFWs, and corporate clients across the Philippines via branches, ATMs, and digital channels.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Retail Banking

NAICS

Savings Institutions and Other Depository Credit Intermediation (52218)

SIC

Savings Institutions, Not Federally Chartered (6036)

akta.pro primary industry

Mass-Market Consumer Deposit Banking (Checking/Savings) (FSABAAAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

SME Deposits & Business Accounts (Operating, Savings, CDs) (FSABABAC)

Keywords

• Thrift banking services
• Consumer loans
• Deposit products
• Business banking solutions
• Digital banking platform

Headquarters

HQ city

San Juan Del Monte

HQ country

Philippines

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain, Others

Revenue model

1. Interest Income: Revenue generated from interest on loans including home loans, auto loans, personal loans, salary loans, business loans, term loans, trade check discounting, developmental loans, domestic bills purchase, and trust receipts
2. Deposit Products: Savings accounts, checking accounts, and time deposits (short-term and long-term) in PHP, USD, and Yuan currencies for personal and business customers
3. Trust and Investment Services: Personal Trust, Corporate Trust, Unit Investment Trust Funds (UITF), Investment Management, and Treasury Services
4. Business Solutions Fees: Transaction and service fees from Optima business solutions including payroll, POS, and cash management systems
5. Card Services: Debit and prepaid card issuance and management services through Visa partnership

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Sterling Bank of Asia is a Philippine thrift bank that accepts deposits (savings, checking, and time deposits in PHP, USD, and CNY) and extends consumer and business loans (home, auto, personal, salary, seafarer, business term loans, trade financing) to retail and SME customers. It provides digital banking through online and mobile platforms, a QR Pay solution, and Visa-backed ShopnPay debit/prepaid cards, alongside Optima System business solutions covering payroll, POS, check writing, cash deposit machines, and eGOV. Trust, treasury, UITF, and investment management services round out the offering, with deposits insured by PDIC and operations supervised by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Product overview

Sterling Bank of Asia is a Philippine thrift bank offering a comprehensive digital banking platform with multi-channel access through online banking, mobile banking, ATM, and QR payments. The core product portfolio includes deposit products (savings accounts in PHP/USD/CNY, checking accounts, and time deposits in short-term and long-term variants), consumer loans (home, auto, personal, salary, seafarer, and EcoSolutions green loans), and business solutions under the Optima System brand (payroll, financial management, check writing, POS, cash deposit machines, and eGov services). The bank also provides investment services including treasury, trust, and UITF products, plus an assets-for-sale platform for foreclosed properties. The ShopnPay Visa cards (debit and prepaid) extend the digital banking experience to card payments. All services are regulated by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and deposits are insured by PDIC up to PHP 1 million.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Shopnpay Cards: Debit and prepaid card products under the Shopnpay Visa brand.
• Sterling Bank Online
• EcoSolutions Loan
• Optima System
• PERSONA Personal Loan

Products and services

• Solo Savings Account (PHP, USD, Yuan and Basic variants)

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• PDIC (Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation)coreOthers · 15 March 2025Mandatory deposit insurance coverage provided by PDIC. Deposits are insured up to PHP 1 million per depositor as of March 15, 2025. This partnership provides government-backed deposit protection for all Sterling Bank depositors.
• BancNetcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorSterling Bank is a proud member of BancNet, the largest electronic banking network in the Philippines. This partnership enables Sterling Bank customers to access ATMs and conduct transactions across a wide network of partner banks and financial institutions throughout the country.
• VisacoreTechnology or IntegrationPartnership with Visa for issuance of ShopnPay Visa Debit Card and ShopnPay Visa Prepaid Card products. This enables Sterling Bank customers to make purchases locally and internationally at any Visa-accepting merchant and withdraw cash from Visa/PLUS ATMs worldwide.
• Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)coreOthersSterling Bank of Asia Inc. is regulated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). The BSP provides regulatory oversight, consumer protection guidelines (Circular No. 542), and sets standards for electronic banking security and operations.
• Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on Iwas Scam Awareness Campaign including educational videos on money muling, economic sabotage in financial scams, consequences of sharing OTPs and clicking links, and account takeover prevention.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI): BPI is a leading Philippine universal bank with a strong digital roadmap (BPI App) and a thrift bank subsidiary (BPI Direct). It competes with Sterling Bank for retail deposits, home and auto loans, and SME banking across the Philippines.
• BDO Unibank: BDO is the largest Philippine universal bank with the broadest deposit and branch network, including a savings bank arm. It competes with Sterling Bank across retail deposits, consumer loans, SME banking, and digital channels, but at significantly greater scale and with broader product licenses.
• UnionBank of the Philippines: UnionBank is a digitally forward Philippine universal bank competing aggressively in retail and SME digital banking. Its mobile-first strategy benchmarks directly against Sterling Bank's 2026 platform upgrade and represents the standard Sterling Bank is trying to catch.
• Security Bank Corporation: Security Bank is a mid-sized Philippine universal bank serving retail, SME, and corporate clients with deposits, loans, treasury, and digital channels. Comparable to Sterling Bank's mid-market position but with broader universal banking license and deeper capital base.
• Metropolitan Bank & Trust (Metrobank): Metrobank is a top-three Philippine universal bank whose PSBank subsidiary directly competes with Sterling Bank. Metrobank's full suite of corporate, treasury, and wealth products competes with Sterling's corporate trust and treasury services.

Direct peers

• Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank): PSBank is the thrift banking arm of the Metrobank group and offers a virtually identical product set — savings, checking, time deposits, consumer loans, SME/merchant acquiring, and digital banking. It is the closest direct comparable to Sterling Bank of Asia in scale, charter type, and product mix.
• China Bank Savings: China Bank Savings is the thrift bank subsidiary of China Banking Corporation, offering deposits, consumer loans, and branch-led retail banking in the Philippines. Like Sterling Bank, it is a thrift bank regulated by BSP with multi-channel retail distribution.
• BPI Direct BanKo (BPI Direct Savings Bank): BPI Direct BanKo is the thrift/savings bank arm of BPI focused on mass-market retail and microfinance, sharing the thrift bank charter and BSP-supervised deposit-led model with Sterling Bank of Asia.

Emerging players

• Tonik Digital Bank: Tonik is a Philippine digital-only bank offering retail deposits, loans, and savings products through a mobile app. It bypasses branches and competes directly for the same mass-market deposit and consumer loan customer that Sterling Bank targets.
• Maya Bank: Maya is a digital bank (formerly Voyager) offering deposits, payments, and credit through a mobile app to Filipino consumers. Its integrated payments-and-banking model threatens Sterling Bank's traditional deposit franchise from the digital-first side.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/sterling-bank-of-asia-inc

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments1 record

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Sterling Bank of Asia